Digenis.org

ThinkGeek website is offering a new wifi-enabled alarm clock that will make you think twice before hitting that snooze button each morning. According to the site, the device ‘connects via WiFi to your online bank account, and donates YOUR real money to an organization you HATE when you decide to snooze’.

Their suggested uses:

Are you a butcher? Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to PETA
Are you a republican? Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to the ACLU!
Are you a land developer? Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to the Wilderness Society!
Enjoy your freedom? (Blue state version) Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to the GOP. or
Enjoy your freedom? (Red state version) Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to MoveOn.Org
Are you a hippie? Set your SnūzNLūz to donate to the American Coal Foundation.

Are you a snoozer? How many times do you hit the snooze button each morning and to which organization would you begrudgingly lose your money if you had this alarm clock?

There have been quite a few important events in the last few months and I felt impelled to take a hiatus from blogging in order to enjoy each of them to the fullest extent, soaking in the significance of each moment.

Most notably, Katya and I were married on September 8th. Planning a ‘western’ style wedding in Moscow proved to be an arduous undertaking, regardless of the fact that we set aside eight months to do so. I feel like I could write a book (or at least a few blog posts) about it all. Surprisingly enough, the simplest part was actually the legal paperwork, something which is usually a terribly long and bureaucratic process in Russia. The ZAGS ceremony, which was at the end of June, was actually a breath of fresh air. We kept it simple, just showing up with a handful of friends and family and signing on a few dotted lines, but the day was still a special and memorable one.

Then on September 8th, two years to the day since we started seeing each other, we sealed the deal po Amerikansky with an all out traditional wedding at a local Protestant church, followed by a reception at the Marriott Courtyard. Family and friends flew in from abroad (the US, Haiti, and Switzerland) to celebrate with us. Though the 8 months of planning was laden with unexpected changes of plans which were out of our control, the Big Day itself went on without a hitch!

We took a short trip to St. Petersburg and are now enjoying settling into our new apartment.

I’m also working in a new job as of May. Things are going well, though I’ve had to work extra hard to climb the learning curve in an industry that’s quite new to me. Perhaps I’ll share more about that later. I’ve also finished up the two side projects I took on with Moscow State University Geography Department and Russian Standard Insurance.

Needless to say, I anticipate having a schedule slightly more conducive to blogging. Along with more frequent posting, I intend to do some housecleaning as a restored Wordpress backup seems to have botched up the Cyrillic encoding of some older entries. Do let me know if you see anything quirky or have any suggestions.

Cheers!

The schedule lately has not allowed for much more than sporadic ‘link-blogging’ and Flickr photos, despite an ever-growing backlog of ideas in the blog.txt file on my desktop. To be honest, if the desire were there I’d find the time; looking back at the history of this site, I think the most interesting articles have been scribed during my busiest periods of multiple employment, student exams, and sleep deprivation.

We have an extra day off here for a Russian national holiday, so I’ll be playing catch up on the MGU project I’m working on. Katya and I are also planning the first rollerblading outing of the year; hopefully we won’t see any rain.

For now, here’s another recent picture from my Flickr stream:

On that note, I’ll mention that I’m participating in 24 Hours of Flickr, an upcoming global community event with the purpose of chronicling May 5th in photographs and posting them to Flickr with the stories behind the pictures. That day promises to be interesting as there’s a Cinco de mayo party on the agenda.

Users will also submit their best photo from that day to the 24 Hours of Flickr group. The creme of the crop will be published in a book later this year and featured at various Yahoo/Flickr events.

Far too busy to post anything meaningful, but isn’t that the story of this blog as of the last year? Still, better to be very occupied than to be bored to death.

Here’s a photo to tide us over for now:

That’s one of the B trolley-buses that circles the Moscow Garden Ring Road. It was such a beautiful, sunny Saturday that the colours turned out just right.

We were shopping downtown on Sunday evening and happened to catch a beautiful sunset. The sky was a brilliant gradient of pinks, oranges, and blues. This picture doesn’t do it fair justice, but at least you get the idea.

Mmm hmm.. Gotta love the simple and profound comics of explodingdog.com. I discovered the site a few years ago but rarely think of checking up on it anymore…

The past year has been a decent one for me with respect to my skills as a photographer. I’m confident that I have made strides forward and improved my techniques. Much of that would not have been possible without Katya’s creative collaboration and encouragement; at the risk of sounding cliche, she’s opened my world to see things from all sorts of new perspectives.

I’m thrilled to say that in 2006 I was contacted by several publishers seeking to buy rights to publish some of my photos. This was both a first and a surprise for me, as I’ve never sought that. Keep your eyes peeled for the following:

- A photo I took of Vladimir Lenin’s souped-up Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with snow treads was featured in an article in Russian AvtoMir (CarWorld) Magazine (January 6, 2007 issue).

- The Russian Orthodox Easter Procession (Krestny Khod) photograph that I took from my balcony last April will be published by BullFinch Press in a book on holiday traditions around the world. It will go to press in October, more details to come.

One of my goals for 2007 is to sell a few more photos. Since these photo editors came knocking at my door, I figure that if I set such a goal before me, do some research, and get my photos circulated, I should at least be able to sell more stock photos than in 2006.

Anyone out there have experience or helpful articles on getting started in stock photography as a hobby?

It’s about that time of the year again… At the end of 2005 I joined in the internet meme of posting a list of all the cities I visited (one night or more) that year. Here’s what 2006 looked like for me:

Moscow, Russia*
Hurghada, Egypt
St. Petersburg, Russia
Kyiv, Ukraine
New York City, NY
Salt Lake City, UT*
Redding, CA
San Francisco, CA
Spijkenisse, Holland
Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Glasgow, Scotland

*’s denote multiple visits to the same city.

I have to admit that it doesn’t seem totally accurate in portraying the intrepid traveller that I am; my time in Belgium and Luxembourg were just multiple day-trips from a homebase in Spijkenisse, so they didn’t even make the list.

What’s your list look like this year? Feel free to post it in the comments or leave a link to your site if you’ve posted there.